Over the past few years, numerous types of display systems, attached to computers and computing systems, have become increasingly more available and commonplace, such as wall-sized display systems, pen- and touch-operated display systems, multi-monitor display systems, and the like. On such display systems, users often encounter difficulties when accessing certain displayed content (called target acquisition), especially when the desired content is relatively remote from the user's current position or reach, or displayed on a display unit that is not interactive. For example, on wall-size display systems, a user may need to walk, or even climb a ladder, in order to access certain content displayed in a remote location. As another example, a tablet computer with a touch sensitive screen, with which a user interacts via a conforming pen or stylus, is often connected to a second display monitor, such as a CRT monitor, that is not touch sensitive. If the user wishes to switch from working on content currently displayed on the tablet computer to working on content displayed on the second display monitor, i.e., the CRT monitor, the user must switch user-interaction paradigms by switching from a stylus to a mouse, locating the mouse's corresponding cursor, moving the cursor to the target content, and interacting with the content of the second display monitor now using the mouse.
As those skilled in the art will appreciate, rather than having large display areas, computer systems, and their corresponding software, have historically focused on displaying content that is larger than the display area. For instance, large documents, pictures, and spreadsheets are displayed in windows/views, where only a portion of the content is visible. To make other portions visible, the window/view typically includes a scrolling mechanism, such as scroll bars, for moving portions of the content into the window/view. Unfortunately, only a portion of the content is ever visible. Furthermore, the content is only scrolled so far as the extent of the content becomes visible. A computer's desktop, i.e., the entire displayed content of the computer system, may also be larger than the displayable surface, especially for notebook and tablet computers, or for personal digital assistants (PDAs.) When the desktop is larger than the displayable surface, the computer system provides for scrolling the undisplayed portions into the displayable surface, typically by trying to move the cursor beyond the edge of the displayable surface. However, just as with a large documents and pictures, the desktop stops scrolling when the furthest extent of the desktop is scrolled/displayed on the displayable surface.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, content visibility does not imply easy accessibility, especially in regard to display systems such as the wall-sized units, or multi-unit display systems that use disparate input mechanisms per display unit. In light of these and other issues found in the prior art, what is needed is a system and method for facilitating the access of remotely displayed content. The present invention addresses these and other issues found in the prior art.